Deep History of Buddhist Chariot Simile: Proto-Indo-European Roots?

[@DougsDharma]

Free mini-course at the Online Dharma Institute: onlinedharma.org! One small correction: the earliest people who domesticated horses did ride them. It seems as though the chariot was a later innovation that only after many centuries was itself overtaken by mounted archers. There is a long and complex history to be told!

[@joelfry4982]

My chariot comes with assembly instructions, as does everyone's.

[@DougsDharma]

😄 Takes hours though and there are never enough screws in the little packages.

[@davidivanjosephsalonia4566]

Buddha said he was a tree, deer, and clouds in previous births, we are that timeless "nothing" in doves! Making flowers bloom next spring. With Gratitude, Dave.🙏

[@russ3llcoolio]

Just beginning watching this video but I would like to tell you Your freaking awesome I’m in tears watching your videos. thank you

[@DougsDharma]

Wow, thank you! 🙏

[@miiigoreng]

Will you like to explore the similes of light (lamp/candles), incense and sandalwood? Since these items have been largely associated with many cultures

[@DougsDharma]

Incense and sandalwood are rarely mentioned in the early texts, and I don't know that they are ever used as similes. I discussed light (or luminosity) a bit in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2iYe4d_aqaLmZY

[@fotischaronis4597]

Hello from Greece!thank you to tech us such a beautiful and interesting thinks!one small correction Menander or milinda was Greek king in india as also the teacher of Nagasena!thank you give us more knowledge!

[@electrichanoi7244]

Great video!

[@DougsDharma]

Thanks Jack!

[@NullStaticVoid]

How did he say Indo-European Sanskrit was the language of Ancient India without the comments being flooded with Tamil and Telugu speakers flooding the comments? Hold on I'm gonna text South India. Also he doesn't even address the Irish connection.

[@DougsDharma]

Good point, Sanskritic languages were only some of the languages of ancient India.

[@TheWayOfRespectAndKindness]

Yet the chariot has no mind or volition. It would be interesting to hear a critical examination of this simile.

[@DougsDharma]

Well this raises all sorts of interesting questions as to whether sufficiently complex constructed objects might have minds or volition! 😄

[@ppfuchs]

This was such a brilliant piece of cultural synthesis, and I am really grateful for it! As are many other of your videos. The complex issues in Buddhism and culture are so difficult to grasp from reading religious histories alone. Btw, on another topic, I would love to know more on how (or if) Buddhist temples were just family businesses, passed down from generation to generation, as I know they were in Zen temples in Japan often. Did this pattern hold for earlier Buddhism as well? And what does this say about Buddhism as a path to Awakening versus a cultural path very much like medieval benefices were for rich people in Christendom? I suspect that there is a difference in Buddhism, but it is hard to get that from religious histories.

[@DougsDharma]

Thanks ppfuchs. My main knowledge and interest lies in early Buddhism; the structures of that day really don't survive so I'm afraid that's not a question we can really answer. That said, human nature being what it is, it certainly wouldn't surprise me if some Buddhist temples did become businesses of one kind or another, as you say happened with some Zen temples in Japan.

[@ppfuchs]

@@DougsDharma thanks!

[@evaanr1971]

Very insightful. But no reference to the wheel and it’s association with samsara?

[@DougsDharma]

Thanks Evaan. I did mention the wheel in some of its uses in the early texts: in particular it’s used to indicate the rolling forth of the Buddha dharma. Interestingly the use of the metaphor of the wheel for samsara in particular seems to be a later development. To my knowledge in the early suttas one doesn’t find samsara described as a wheel. Though if someone knows otherwise and can find a citation I’d be interested to know!

[@evaanr1971]

@@DougsDharma Hi Doug, It’s always fascinating to watch your KZbin videos and I agree with all you’ve mentioned. Having lived in Sri Lanka many years ago, the wheel is commonly used to explain Dukka and Satya (suffering and the reality of suffering). The spokes of the wheel show the various points of a persons life through time (birth, childhood, teenager, parent, old age, death…) and the continuation of that life into reincarnation. It is also referenced as the natural order of things, “the law of nature”, being the movement of time (dawn, morning, afternoon, evening, night, and the continuation into the next day), continuation of Seasons (as per the reference of time), continuation of life…etc. Another famous reference is the bullock cart. No matter how fast the bull runs it cannot escape from it’s own karma. The turning wheel of Karma (revenge or comeuppance). Also similarly explaining samsara, the continual cycle of Dukka. Also as what you've mentioned the wheel in association with Buddha Dharma - Dhamakchakkapavathana sutra (setting the wheel of Dharma in motion) Some of the above references may have also been understood by the Hindu community who lived during Asoka The Great’s time, and who converted to Buddhism during that time, hence the common referencing of the wheel in the architecture of that period. In my opinion, these were all such culturally common associations that it is unlikely that anyone bothered writing such things down, and only the more in depth references (as what you have mentioned) were written down to help monastic understanding. I am in no means an expert on the topic and don’t know any academic references/citations to offer you, but I’m always keen to hear your opinion. ☺️

[@อรุณสวัสดิ์ครับ-ฐ7ท]

Hello Doug. Can you please make the video on Madhyamika school and Nagarjuna!! I'm writing an article at the moment and would like to hear your knowledge on this school and Nagarjuna. Thanks.

[@DougsDharma]

I may do a video eventually on Nāgārjuna and the Madhyamaka school, but it’s not in the central focus of this channel which is early Buddhism. That material is at least seven centuries later, and very complex and sophisticated.

[@อรุณสวัสดิ์ครับ-ฐ7ท]

Thanks for the reply, very good contents you have in your channel. I guess i have to look else where for my article. Thank anyway!!

[@SkylarRuloff]

What area are you from Doug? I've never heard an accent where people pronounce the h in wheel. Great video!

[@DougsDharma]

Thanks Skylar! I'm from the Northeast US.

[@willmosse3684]

Ha! Watch Dr Jackson Crawford, Old Norse linguist, on his channel on KZbin. He pronounces the H in Wheel, What, etc., and makes quite a big thing of it. It apparently used to be standard in many dialects of English, but is now increasingly archaic. Crawford, who is from Colorado, claims to have this pronounciation because he was raised by his grandparents, and says it was common in the area in their day, but almost no one other than him has it now. As a linguist, I think he likes having this archaism in his speech. And, Doug has it too! In an interesting tie in with this video, Old Norse is also an Indo-European language, along with Sanskrit, and as a linguist, Crawford has several videos about the Proto-Indo-European language, how it spread and evolved into modern Indo-European languages from Europe to India etc. Possibly even discussing Indo-European wagon and chariot culture I think. Norse/Viking ship burials are theorised to be a transfer of older Indo-European cart or chariot burials, but transferred to their new sea faring culture in Scandinavia. I can’t remember if he goes into that specifically though. Maybe the pronounced H is something common to KZbin scholars of Indo-European language and culture? 😂

[@saswatabiswas190]

yoga means to connect small i to capital I.simply jibatma t paramatma

[@DougsDharma]

Yes, the word has taken on any number of connotations over the millennia.

[@saswatabiswas190]

@@DougsDharma but Buddha is entirely non dual vedantist.what is taught in Upanishad and Vedanta lord Buddha taught same thing but in a different manner.he taught for masses

[@DougsDharma]

Thanks for your thoughts saswata. I don't believe the term "non-dual" (advaita) ever occurs within the early texts. Non-dual vedantism is anachronistic to the Buddha; he wasn't a believer in the Vedas and didn't ever express a philosophy of "non-dualism".

[@Mudita00]

Sanskrit is never found before 2000 yrs, it means sanskrit is more younger than pali, and so on pali is mother of sanskrit.

[@OccidentalAryan]

Lol, not correct.

[@Mudita00]

@OccidentalAryan एक्सीडेंटल आर्यन बिना साक्ष्य मत रखने वालो को कुतर्क करनेवाला कहते है

[@Tridib_Tinkel]

Why don't you become a monk?

[@DougsDharma]

Well, because I'm quite attached to my family and to lay life. Also as a secular practitioner I doubt my approach would fit well with most all contemporary monastics. 🙂

[@Tridib_Tinkel]

@@DougsDharma We really appreciate it how you take part in providing truth thru your works. Lots of profound information.